Curricle & Chaise – Romance needed? Yes! Good guess Amazon!

40 Unforgettable Dates With Your Mate – A date might be overdue, how did you know Amazon?

Rough and Tender – It’s just the question what we are talking about here… me?

Kindle US Power Adapter – Oh yes, my Kindle didn’t come with one and it also doesn’t last two months as it states, but I won’t get this tiny thing for this ridiculous price.

Life Management – I could use some of that please.

Mountain Woman – Yep, I guess that’s my soon new me.

Lead with LUV: A Different Way To Create Real Success – Am I not successful enough?

Waiting For Rudi – Who is Rudi?

Also:

A Man Walks Into A Bar – How about a missy walks into a bar? Haven’t done THAT for a while and am craving a drink with friends and mr.natey!

Circle Of Friends Cookbook – Friends…oh yeah, they are too far away and deeply missed.

The Vegan Slow Cooker – Could be my current answer to the American Fast Food. Also I’m eating more vegan than ever before (due to allergies and health reasons).

Similar posts:

• New header picture
• My laptop is dead
• Laptop update
• What’s ill Cola doing?

Tonight on Thursday the 12th of April 2012 the fuel price in the Waterville Maine area went over four dollars the first time.

4!

That’s a lot for around here…especially in the poorer Central Maine.
I also already feel that this is a high price although I have been here in Maine only since last July, but since then the price just rose so fast! Shortly after I bought my super-Subaru fuel was at $3.17. Only three months later it is at $4. That’s a quick rise!

I should add that the fuel price in the US is measured by the gallon, which is 3.8 liters.

While $4/gallon is still “cheap” compared to German fuel, which is around 1.70 Euro PER LITER (= $6.45/gallon!!), most people in the US, especially in rural areas like Maine, drive their car a lot more than in Germany. There is no public transport in about 90% of Maine and people often drive one or two hours to work. mr.Natey drives 1.5 hours to his work with a heavy duty Volvo wagon (which uses less fuel than my light Subaru…which really annoys me).

First I thought gas is so cheap here…compared to Germany, but I only get 300 miles (483 km) to the tank (60 liters?) and paying around $55 to fill it up. My beloved car gets 22 miles/gallon, which is a bit low (the mister and his Volvo get 28 miles/gallon, newer cars can get up to 50 miles/gallon).

Oh and yes, my car is also an automatic (I hate automatics…grrr), but I could not find a manual car that ticked all the boxes. Manual cars are way more fuel efficient…at least the older models. My car is a 92, good old boy, but I guess I still need to break him in a bit more to reach the estimated 24 to 29 miles per gallon. But even the latest 2011 model of the Subaru Outback Wagon (the one I was going to get), the fuel economy is not much better than mine; almost worse with only 18 to 25 miles per gallon. Now think of those heavy duty trucks and SUV’s that are driving around everywhere….I don’t understand how people are willing to afford them.

Well, imagine a carved wooden board that is hanging on Planet Cola’s header saying “we’re at 4 dollars per gallon”…knowing that the only way is up and tomorrow is Friday the 13th (by the way).

Does someone drive a hybrid or electric car yet?
Who rides his/her bike to work?
I never see people on bikes here. There are no bike lanes around here and the mister said riding a scooter is even too dangerous…sigh…I need a horse and a cart!!!! And I HAVE seen those in people’s yards! Yes, a little bit old Wild West is still alive, I tell ‘ya!

Similar posts:

• 103.1
• Green Cola
• Waving goodbye
• What happened in the new house so far (pics!)

1. Given a sugar pill (which has no physical effect) people with certain conditions not only report feeling better, but see actual improvements in their condition.

2. Given two sugar pills, people report more benefit than one sugar pill.

3. If someone believes a placebo has a negative effect, they can experience that negative effect. This is called a nocebo.

4. If a sugar pill is described as a muscle relaxant it will cause muscle relaxation. If the same type of sugar pill is described as causing muscle tension, it will produce muscle tension.

5. Placebos can produce the same side-effects that the real drug the person thinks they’re taking would also produce.

6. When conducting a study, it is an error to assume that your treatment produced the improvement and everyone seeing improvement under the placebo are “only” experiencing placebo effects. It could very well be that everyone who experience an improvement were experiencing a placebo effect.

7. Saltwater placebos administered via syringe are more effective than sugar pills.

8. Pacemakers can improve heart function after they’ve been put in, but before they’ve been switched on.

9a. Give people a sugar pill and tell them it’s a stimulant and they get stimulated.

9b. Give people a relaxant but tell them it’s a stimulant and they get more stimulated than anyone in 9a or 9c.

9c. Give people a relaxant, tell them it’s a relaxant: They have more molecules of the relaxant in their blood plasma than the people in 9b.

10. We’re still pretty confused about the placebo effect and it’s causes. There’s a mishmash of different things going on and we’re still picking them apart. Also, it’s really hard to design studies!

I read this on Google+ (via Dustin Wyatt) and wanted to share it here because I think there are some really interesting points. Isn’t #8 just crazy? Or #4?

Of course I was not the only one wondering about the sources for these claims, and Mr Wyatt was so friendly to add them; you can find them here.

I am so sure that our mind is able to “give” us an illness just because we “think” we are having something. Or because we are afraid that we would get ill. I’m convinced that our mind is the most powerful “mechanism” (if one can call it that) of the human body. I often think of things that could happen and then they are happening. Mostly they happen if I speak them out loud. I’m really concentrating on not speaking certain things of my mind out loud (which is hard, but I’m getting better at it, haha).

In regards to pills I actually had a similar placebo effect happening to me when I was a teenager. At a party I had a bad headache and someone offered me a pain reliever in form of a small tablet. Not even an hour later I felt fine; my headache was gone. The next day that “friend” told me it was not a headache tablet; it was just a small sugar pill. Something like dextrose. I could not believe it as it really helped with my headache. Crazy, isn’t it?

Do you have a placebo experience to share?

Similar posts:

• Choc Poem on Sunday
• Social network befriendings…
• Schwäbischer Pflaumenkuchen – Swabian Plum Cake
• My new breakfast love

Winter

has been beauti-

-ful

with lots of sunshine

and a blue sky 97% of the time

and interesting formations

and interesting cat-walks

We enjoyed the winter races for kids

and for adults

and I went to my first open air on ice (frozen lake)

and realized that people even brought out their couches

I got into skiing

and other outdoor fun

I enjoyed the work that came with the snow

and loved watching the squirrels digging for food

I was totally excited and happy when I finally could smell, hear and see the ocean

This was one of the happiest moments this winter (I really missed the ocean)

I wanted to take my clothes off and run in…

but decided to enjoy the calm winter beach scenery instead

I learned that the wildlife at the beach is somewhat different to Australia (‘s snakes and sharks)

It has been a great winter and Maine is definitely worth a visit during this beautiful, sunny and peaceful time of the year

Winter is as good as over. We’ve had crazy 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32○C) last week, which was very unusal for March in Maine. Well, we’ve enjoyed flip flops and sunbaths on the porch until we got another small snow storm a few days later. What’s happening to the weather? Crazy! We are back to wearing socks and warm jackets for a few more days but from now on it’s supposed to get only warmer. Still a very early spring, people say here in Maine, because it can be snowing until May! As much as I liked the winter, I am ready for all the beauty spring has to offer!

Similar posts:

• Haarkatastrophobie – Bad Hair Days
• Downtown Kiel 2007/2008
• [Careful, womanish] Hihihi…hellooo it’s me^10
• Today in my front garden

Wir sind mit dem Internet und im Internet aufgewachsen. Darum sind wir anders. Das ist der entscheidende, aus unserer Sicht allerdings überraschende Unterschied: Wir “surfen” nicht im Internet und das Internet ist für uns kein “Ort” und kein “virtueller Raum”. Für uns ist das Internet keine externe Erweiterung unserer Wirklichkeit, sondern ein Teil von ihr: eine unsichtbare, aber jederzeit präsente Schicht, die mit der körperlichen Umgebung verflochten ist.

Ein wunderbarer Artikel (Piotr Czerski, uebersetzt aus dem Polnischen von Patrick Beuth und Andre Rudolph), den es lohnt zu lesen, und nicht nur, wenn man mit dem Internet aufgewachsen ist.

Wir verstehen nicht, warum wir einen festen Wohnsitz (absurd genug, so etwas überhaupt haben zu müssen) erst förmlich abmelden müssen, bevor wir uns an einem anderen anmelden können – als könnten die Behörden diese Sache nicht auch ohne unser Eingreifen regeln.

Ich habe einmal versucht, meinem Ami-Maenne meinen festen Wohnsitz zu erklaeren und habe nur einen Blick der Unverstaendnis erhalten. Verstaendlich irgendwie, wenn man mal wirklich drueber nachdenkt.

So, und nun ab und den gesamten Artikel lesen.

EN

Read the article in the English version here.

Similar posts:

• Bad bad internet or maybe the best invention?
• Es tut schon weh, sprachen die Oberschenkel
• Planet Cola jetzt (wieder) mit Gravatar
• Grosse Schwestern und schlaue Frauen

Vor Jahren hat meine Mama, die in jungen Jahren mit dem Rauchen angefangen hat und sich zum Kettenraucher entwickelt hat, es geschafft und von heute auf morgen mit dem Schmoeken aufgehoert. Sie hat es nicht einmal gross angekuendigt. Wochen spaeter erfuhr ich, dass sie nun nicht mehr raucht. Einfach so. Ich fand es unglaublich…bewundernswert, nach knapp 2 Schachteln pro Tag einfach so aufzuhoeren. Sie wusste, wie abhaengig sie vom Nikotin war. Sie war keine Genussraucherin, sondern eher die Gelegenheitsraucherin; und Gelegenheiten gab es viele; rund um die Uhr. Sie hatte es nie vorher probiert, wahrscheinlich weil sie immer der Meinung war, dass sie einfach schon zu lange raucht, um es sich jetzt noch abzugewoehnen. Sie hat keine Hilfe in Anspruch nehmen muessen, keine Buecher gewaelzt, keine Pflaster benutzt oder sonstige Methoden ausprobiert. Von heute auf morgen war Schluss. Ich werde nie vergessen, wie der graue Schleier vom Gesicht abfiel und ein wunderschoenes Strahlen zum Vorschein kam. Es war fast wie ein face lifting; nach wenigen Monaten sah meine Mama wie ausgewechselt aus. Die Augen glitzerten, die Gesichtshaut strahlte. Es war echt extrem, zu sehen, was die Toxine auesserlich mit einem anstellten. Es ist also nie zu spaet, aufzuhoeren.

Mein Papa ist dagegen eher der Genussraucher. Dennoch qualmt’s bei ihm auch in mehreren Schachteln pro Woche, wenn auch weniger als damals bei der Mama. Dann kam das Toechterlein, damals auch rauchend, auch noch auf die Idee ihm von einer Promotionaktion eine Gratisprobe von in Whiskey getraeufelte Zigarillos mitzubringen. Seit dem Tage vor etlichen Jahren raucht er also nun diese (viel schlimmeren) Zigarillos. (Die Whiskey-Version war auf Dauer zu teuer, also wurden die Lidl-Billigdinger gekauft.) Viel schlimmer in dem Sinne, weil Zigarillos weitaus staerker sind als Zigaretten und dann raucht man an so nem Zigarillo auch mehr als doppelt so lange, wenn auch weniger als vergleichsweise Zigaretten pro Tag.

Ich hatte meinem Papa gegenueber vor einiger Zeit mal erwaehnt, dass er nun der einzige Rauchende in der Familie sei und dass Rauchen ja irgendwie inzwischen auch ziemlich “out” sei; ganz zu Schweigen von der gesundheitsschaedigenden Wirkung; vor allem, wenn man(n) gerade die stolze Siebzig ueberschritten hat. Er ist fuer sein Alter super fit und klettert immer noch auf (Apfel-)Baeumen herum und ist auch sonst jeden Tag in Bewegung; dennoch habe ich insgeheim gehofft, dass er sich vielleicht meine Mama als Vorbild nimmt.

Und heute passierte es aus heiterem Himmel, dass ich mit meinem Papa telefonierte und er so ganz nebenbei in einem anderen Zusammenhang erwaehnte, dass er seinen neuen Fernsehsessel ja nun in sein Zimmer unterm Dach stellen koenne, da nun keine “Gefahr” mehr bestehe, dass er das gute Stueck einqualme und damit ruiniert, da er bereits seit 5 Wochen nicht mehr rauche. 5 Wochen? Und wieso erfahre ich das erst jetzt?

Einfach so aufgehoert. Unglaublich. Ich war sprachlos und super stolz und gluecklich zugleich.

Das kann ja auch kein Mann auf sich sitzen lassen – drei Weiber in der Familie, alle viel und lange geraucht, alle von heute auf morgen aufgehoert. “Das kann ich auch”, muss er sich gesagt haben. Nein…er sagte mir, “Du, weisst Du, Rauchen ist eine reine Kopfsache.” Genau, und wenn man diesen Dickkopf besiegt, ist das eine grossartige Leistung!

2012 und aus einer kompletten Raucherfamilie ist nun eine Nichtraucherfamilie geworden.

Similar posts:

• Die Strafe für die Colasünde kam sofort
• Darf es etwas Süßes für Sie sein?
• Mehl
• Persönliche Hotlinefragen Toplist #1

In the end it was this code snippet:
<?php _e('Leave your comment - Komm', sag was!'); ?>

Now something for the smart ones under us: where is the mistake in the above code?

TechniCola needs to pay more attention. Jawoll!

P.S.: And because life is good when code just works, I felt like a little design change…a very small change…some fresh blue instead of pink (because I love the ocean, and I miss the ocean), a new header font and rearrangement of date and categories underneath the headline. Yep, can stay like this for a while.

Similar posts:

• ThreeandahalfyearsAnniversary
• Free fixed phone calls to Germany and abroad?
• Receive calls from Germany via German phone number in Australia
• Happy smiling

I saw that my CSS was not valid, so I spend some time today to eliminate all those 40 errors, phew! Valid code now, but still, the comment function remains broken. I guess that wasn’t it, huh. When you click onto “Be awesome & leave a comment” the comment form doesn’t open. Come here you dirty little code (Kot)…NOW!

I also realized that you probably cannot vote at my new poll if you’re using Firefox (I’m using 10.0.2). The radio buttons are simply not clickable. Arghhhhh!! It works with the Internet Explorer (but shouldn’t it be the other way around? I hate the IE). The poll I’m using is WP-Poll by GamerZ. I have used this nice plugin/tool forever with no problems and want it to work with FF, but I’m using an older WordPress version, maybe that’s it? :{

Now that I wanted to work on the blog, GoDaddy’s server is down. Gimme a break! I cannot count how often their servers are down. COUNTLESS times! How farking annoying! Well, for the record, the server that my site is on was down today on 3/8/2012 from approximately 9:30pm to 9:47pm (EST).

Okay, now…who has an idea how to get my comments page back? It probably is a tiny little code error…but I wouldn’t ask if I were able to find it. Oh – yes, I understand, haha, you would not be able to leave help in the comments, because…haha, ok, understand, how about via twitter or old school email?
Any tips and help is very much appreciated!

Similar posts:

• Spelling
• Moving registrars – check
• Comment problem solved
• The missy’s name

When I started writing this entry (which was before Valentine’s Day) we had the little bit of snow that looked like it doesn’t stick around too much longer. Everything was on the melt and the green came through. It felt like spring is here (temperature-wise). I honestly didn’t want the winter to be over yet. (I thought I’d never think or even say this!!)
But it felt like winter hasn’t really come yet. I’ve heard so much about the Maine winters. But, where was the cold? I felt colder in Northern Germany, although coastal, but still. Okay, we had a bit of snow over Christmas and here and there, but it was so mild and so sunny almost every single day so far! I mean I love it!

Snow AND sun = awesome! Who would disagree. If the winters are always like this here (unfortunately I was told they aren’t) I want to be nowhere else in winter.

We thought we might as well use our snowmobile before the snow melts. This was so much fun and I really hope we get more snow to do it again – snowmobiling action with mr.natey as crazy driver and missycola as screaming….missy on the back seat:

These things go F-A-S-T! OMG, my heart skipped a beat while I was trying not to slip off the seat. With the uneven frozen ground it is not possible to foresee the bumps and jumps. I felt like I wanted to wear a helmet at the speed of 50 miles/hr (~100km/h)!!! My smile almost froze in the cold wind, but I was happy like a child.

BUT THEN – two weeks or so later, we got another snowstorm. A real one. I mean a snowstorm that actually deserves the name. LOTS OF SNOW in a short time. Yeahhhh – this was the snow I was awaiting the whole winter!

We were excited like little kids. “Let’s build a snowman!” was one of the first words I spoke that early morning, when I woke up in the perfect winter wonderland and the snow on the tree branches looked so heavy as if the branch can hardly hold it any longer.

And before even having the first coffee and before breakfast, we jumped into our snow suits and ran outside into the backyard:

But what are we building? Huh? Noooo, you’re wrong.

In fact we we’re building this:

Still not sure what it is?

GrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRR, meet the CoNa-IceBear:

Also, the second snowstorm brought a lot more snow than the last one, so we could go on another and even better snowmobile ride, because there was more thick snow to slide on.

I made a few videos from this ride and wanted to use imovie to cut them together, but it’s a nightmare. My laptop is too slow to handle this in a decent time (and I am too impatient to wait almost 35 minutes to import a small 130MB file locally! I mean, the video is on my computer already; I’m just trying to open it in imovie. But I guess I need more than 512MB Ram. *cough*
Honestly, who wants to donate me a new laptop? How could I endure this ongoing situation for so long? It’s awful. Anyway, I’m working on getting it done (and hope that Apple launches the new macbook sooner as soon!!!) and will upload it with the next post.

With the last days of the season I enjoy the snow and think ‘Winter is a beautiful season that I have really missed in my years in down under’ (but I never had this nice snow in Germany, so that’s why I thought I don’t miss winter ;)):

Similar posts:

• Last day of autumn means WINTER season begins
• Speak of the devil
• PiCola Quiz 1
• Schon gesehen? Already Seen?

Now I really want to make the right decision with my new hosting provider, because that’s where it is important that my site is running strong and reliably 365 days out of 365 days. Ok, here I am dreaming again.

I must say, I never really had any problems with GoDaddy, besides the fact that I cannot view/use/maintain my website at home because of the known GoDaddy+Wildblue+Mac – problem. Their phone support is very good. And I called them quite a few times. They are always very friendly and mostly helpful. Too bad that we have shitty Wildblue Internet, which doesn’t work together with GoDaddy on my Mac. But since we cannot change the internet provider, I have to change my hosting.

Well, now that my blog is finally up and running with namecheap as new registrar, I will look into moving to a new webhost. I only need to decide between the two that I have in mind…stable*host or host*gator…

Why is it so difficult to choose the right webhost? Why are there 99.8% bad ones out there? All-inkl.com, if you read this, please please offer abroad payment methods like paypal or similar, so I can move my sites back to you. (heart) Until then, I have to swim with the sharks it looks like.

Similar posts:

• Und es geht los – we are moving today and this weekend
• Beware of poking in real life
• Moving webspace
• Back in Perth